Fears are growing that Gaza’s hospitals, many of which are already on the brink of collapse, will be subject to intensified attacks as the Israeli military pushes deeper into the enclave.
In recent days, Israeli warplanes have closed in on two hospitals in Gaza City – al-Shifa and al-Quds – bombing areas in their immediate vicinity. Both hospitals were ordered to evacuate by the Israeli army, a request that doctors and independent experts say is impossible to meet, given the large number of patients in their wards, including those on life support.
The looming threat comes as hospitals in the besieged enclave, deprived of fuel and essential medicines, collapse. Sixteen out of 35 no longer work. Hospitals that are still operating warn that once generators are shut down, they will no longer be able to operate ventilators, incubators and dialysis machines and will effectively turn into morgues.
What is happening to Gaza’s hospitals? To what extent are they protected by international law?
Which hospitals are under threat in Gaza?
In recent days, al-Quds and al-Shifa hospitals in Gaza City as well as the Indonesian hospital in northern Gaza have been the target of attacks in their immediate vicinity. These are just three of 13 hospitals in the Gaza Strip that have repeatedly been ordered to evacuate despite treating thousands of patients.
Speaking after the attacks near al-Quds, Nebal Farsakh, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Red Crescent, told Al Jazeera: “Evacuating them means killing them. »
The World Health Organization said it would be illegal to strike the hospital, which treats hundreds of patients and houses 14,000 displaced Palestinians.
Al-Shifa, meaning “house of healing” in Arabic, is the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip, currently treating thousands of patients. The Israeli military has claimed that Hamas has built several military complexes under its authority. Hamas rejected this allegation.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said “there is nowhere safe for these patients to go.” Any evacuation would be, it is said, “a death sentence”. Hospitals also house around 117,000 displaced people whose homes were bombed.
Last week, Israeli bombs damaged part of the cancer ward at the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital. On Wednesday, the hospital announced its closure. “We are telling the world, ‘Don’t let cancer patients die because of an out-of-service hospital,'” said hospital director Subhi Sukeyk.
Has Israel announced it will attack hospitals?
“What we are seeing is that they are preparing the public for the bombing of hospitals,” Neve Gordon, professor of international law and human rights at Queen Mary University of London, told Al Jazeera on Thursday.
On Monday, in what appeared to be a preemptive deflection of expected criticism, the Israeli military released a video alleging that al-Shifa was a command and control center for Hamas, acting as “one of the headquarters” of Hamas. the group’s military wing, the Qassam organization. Brigades. Last week, Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari presented a 3D map of alleged Hamas centers and tunnels beneath the hospital.
The latest attack on Gaza hospitals follows last month’s explosion at al-Ahli hospital in Gaza City, which has not yet been independently investigated. Palestinian authorities said the blast killed nearly 500 people and pointed the finger at Israel.
Israel has blamed Palestinian Islamic Jihad, but its evidence, including filmed footage of a missile 40 minutes later the explosion and a verifiable tampered registration of an alleged conversation between Hamas members that linguists found syntactically unusual, cast doubt on his claims.
Al-Ahli had also received several warnings to evacuate before the explosion.
To what extent are hospitals protected by international law?
International humanitarian law is based on the Geneva Conventions of 1949, signed after the horrors of the Second World War. Under the conventions, hospitals are considered “civilian property” and enjoy de facto protection, said Srinivas Burra, associate professor of international humanitarian law at the University of South Asia in New Delhi.
The 1977 Additional Protocols to the conventions provide specific provisions for hospitals. Article 12 clearly states: “Medical units must be respected and protected at all times and must not be attacked. »
However, Article 13 then sets out exceptions, specifying that medical units will cease to be protected if they “are used to commit, outside of their humanitarian function, acts harmful to the enemy.” In such cases, he said, warnings and “reasonable time” should be given.
“The law recognizes the protection and then disavows it,” Gordon said. He said hospitals could lose their right to protection in cases where they are used to protect fighters or store weapons or if they are located near legitimate military targets.
There are also questions of proportionality, namely whether the military objective justifies the damage caused.
As Gordon said, “the higher the value of the military target, the more people you are allowed to kill.” Hamas headquarters would, he said, be considered a high-value target.
“You can inflate a military target and deflate the damage you create,” he said.
“The protection of hospitals is not absolute. It can be compromised if used for military purposes,” Burra said.
However, he stressed that it is not enough for an enemy to warn an entire hospital treating the sick and wounded to evacuate.
Warnings should be addressed directly to the combatants, allowing them sufficient time to comply and demonstrating that they were still present before the attack.
“In the current situation, it appears that no such warning was given,” he said.